Steel Strip

Mill outages continue in the US, with operating levels now under 50 percent. There is still negative pressure on transaction prices as sales fail to recover. All the major steel consuming sectors are affected by the financial and economic crisis - from construction through to manufacturing and particularly the auto industry. Moreover, distributors are buying [...]

Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata has said job cuts will take place at Jaguar unless the British government guarantees loans worth millions of pounds to the car maker. In an interview to Sky News, Ratan Tata said, "Job cuts will be made unless the government can guarantee 500 million pounds in loans [...]

The government has dismissed calls for a wage subsidy to keep the steel industry going through the recession.
Ian Cawsey, the Labour MP for Brigg & Goole, called a special Parliamentary debate on Tuesday to ask ministers to help steel giant Corus.
He said the company needed help to retain staff at its plants in Scunthorpe [...]

Chinese steelmakers are headed for troubled times as steel products makers are finding it tough to sell their products due to the narrow price gap with global prices, analysts said yesterday.
In February, China exported only 1.56 million tons of steel products, down 50 percent year-on-year. This is the lowest monthly export since October 2004 and [...]

PRODUCTION on Scunthorpe’s Corus steelworks has hit its lowest level in 50 years, adding to fears that more jobs could go.

The gloom over the industry deepened despite the 6,000-strong workforce helping to make savings of more than £44-million since last November.
Works site director Sean Lyons said: "Our present output is at its lowest for at [...]

ThyssenKrupp is to be the first big German industrial company to slash thousands of permanent jobs because of the global recession, it emerged on Thursday, as the country’s largest steelmaker struggles with a sharp downturn in demand.
The conglomerate plans to cut more than 3,000 jobs, or 1.5 per cent of its total workforce, in its [...]

The EU mills continue to curb capacity but many market players question whether the cuts are sufficient. Distributors are still destocking because sales to end-users are so poor that the whole process is taking much longer than anticipated. Credit issues are exacerbating an already dismal demand situation. The producers have held back from making official [...]

Based on reported import licenses, US flat products imports increased 8% in January to 514,000 short tonnes compared to December actuals of 474,000 tons. Licenses reported up to 17 February reached 347,000 tons, which indicates that full-month imports for February should climb significantly.
Reported at Nerds of Steel, where you can find the full article
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Carmaker Toyota says that staff at its UK factories will have their pay and working hours cut by 10%.
The cuts will take effect on 1 April and will last for one year. They affect 4,500 staff at plants in Burnaston, Derby, and Deeside, Flintshire.
Toyota said the measures would allow the company to "maintain employment [...]

Severstal,, Russia’s largest steelmaker, said it planned to cut 9,000-9,500 jobs at its Russian steel facilities in response to weak demand, and would also make layoffs at its coal and iron-ore mines.
Russian steel makers joined global rivals in reducing output during the fourth quarter, though they have thus far refrained from significant layoffs because [...]